SHILLONG: The low pass percentage in the Meghalaya Board of School Education’s (MBoSE) Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination continues to worry educationists in the State.
The pass percentage this year is 54.04 per cent, the second lowest in the last five years, the lowest being 53.11 in 2015. The highest pass percentage in the last five years, meanwhile, was 56.31 in 2013.
Stringent evaluation process
Commenting on the existing state of affairs, Director of Education (School Education and Literacy) Ambrose Ch Marak said the evaluation process in MBoSE is very stringent thus making it difficult for students to score marks.
He, however, claimed that the syllabus of the board is on a par with other boards in the country.
The official refused to admit that absence of an education policy in the State is one of the factors leading to average performance by students in the Board examinations.
“Meghalaya follows the national curriculum framework,” he said.
Shortage of qualified Science, Math teachers
Marak admitted that the State faces shortage of qualified Science and Mathematics teachers.
“It is a fact that many people who are qualified in Science don’t like to opt for teaching but pursue different fields of technical work and engineering,” he said.
Expressing concern over the ongoing trend, an educationist, MPR Lyngdoh, stressed on the need to do everything possible to increase the pass percentage to stop youths from getting into “wrong things”.
Lyngdoh also advocated the need to have qualified teachers to impart quality education to the youths. “The importance of qualified teachers should not be ignored and rather the issue should be addressed up right from the primary level,” Lyngdoh said.
“We cannot compromise on the education sector and teachers should be appointed on the basis of merit,” she added.
MBoSE executive chairman Pravin Bakshi said the Board has already started the thinking process to bring about the required changes to further improve the overall standard of education.
“The Board is also going to partner with leading publishers before publishing books, besides symposiums for skill improvement of teachers will also start next month,” he said, adding, “The Board is also going to look at its evaluation process which is very stringent whereas evaluation process of other boards is quite liberal.”
Recently, the principal of Laban Bengalee Boys’ Higher Secondary School, Rinku Bhattacharjee, while sharing her views on the concerns dwelt on the need to improve the students’ interest in subjects like Mathematics and English since many students are unable to grasp the tougher subjects.
According to her, there is a need to improve Mathematics and English at the SSLC level that will help them excel in HSSLC examinations.
Realising the difficulty of students to grasp the subjects, the Khasi Authors’ Society has also made a call to translate the textbooks of Mathematics and Science into local language.
